The Devil's Kettle conundrum

Devil's Kettle Falls: the east branch (right) drops 50 feet over the rocky cliff; the west branch (left) disappears into a cauldron.Courtesy Mark RyanWith autumn in full force and snow already in the weekend forecast there’s not much time to get out and get some last looks at some of the many interesting geological wonders we have here in Minnesota. So I thought I’d end the tourist season (at least the geo-tourist season) with one last thing that will keep you pondering all through the dreary days of winter. Hopefully, next spring, when you come out of hibernation you’ll have a solution in hand to this odd geological mystery.

Devil’s Kettle is a puzzling geological phenomenon located on the North Shore of Lake Superior. As the Brule River makes it way toward the lake, it gets split in two by a rocky knob located just above the falls. While the east half tumbles down 50 feet in normal waterfall fashion and continues toward the lake, the west half disappears in a very large pothole and is never seen again. Where does the water go? No one seems to know.

Devil's Kettle: where does all that water go?Courtesy Mark RyanIt’s a heck of a lot of water (not to mention trees, rocks, and boulders) to just vanish into the ground. There’s been speculation that the underground river ends up somewhere along the shore of Lake Superior (about 1.5 miles away), but it has never been determined where exactly.

One theory has the river following a large fault located somewhere in the lower bedrock. But this is unlikely since it would have to be extremely large to allow for so much water to flow through it. It would also have to be precisely oriented toward the lake. And there’s never been any evidence of such a fault found in the area.

Another theory is that a lava tube formed a billion years ago when the rocks first solidified. Lava tubes can be found in Hawaii where fresh basalt is created by the islands’ volcanoes. The problem with this theory, according to geologist John C. Green, is that the rock at Devil’s Kettle waterfalls isn't basalt - it's rhyolite, and lava tubes never form in rhyolite.

But maybe it's a hidden lava tube located in a layer of basalt directly beneath the rhyolite. After all, geologists have determined that the rocks in that particular region alternate between layers of rhyolites and layers of basalts. Maybe the swirling rock-filled glacial water that formed the pothole at the end of an ice age cut down beyond the rhyolite and into an ancient lava tube. That could have happened right? Well, not likely. For one thing the basalts found in the area aren't the kind in which lava tubes would form. North Shore basalts were flood basalts that spread out on the surface like pancake batter poured onto a griddle. But even if it were the correct kind, the nearest basalt layer to Devil’s Kettle is located much too far underground to be any kind of factor in the mystery.

Cool video of Devil's Kettle courtesy the Superior Hiking Trail.

So where does it all that water go? Over the years, people have tried to figure it out by throwing logs, colored dyes, and even ping-pong balls into Devil’s Kettle in hopes of seeing signs of them show up along the lakeshore. But none ever has, and where it all ends up remains a mystery. (One story claims someone pushed a car into the cauldron, but to get a car to the site and be able to dump it into the kettle from above looked nearly impossible to me. When we were there, my wife remarked it’d be a great place to get rid of a body. That didn’t set well with me – and not because of the difficulty involved in doing it. I made sure she walked ahead of me on the way back.)

Anyway, if you want to go see this remarkable geological conundrum for yourself, Devil’s Kettle is located in Judge C. R. Magney State Park about fifteen miles beyond Grand Marais on Highway 61. To get to the falls you have to walk in about 1-1.5 mile from the park entrance, including climbing down (and up, on the way back) about 200 wooden steps. But the trek is well worth the effort. The park closes for the season at the end of October so if you have a chance this month you should check it out. Who knows - maybe once you see Devil’s Kettle for yourself, you’ll be the one to figure out where all that water goes.

I've seen it, and it goes hundreds even thousands of feet underground. Any form of tracking device wouldn't work that far underground. Nice try. I'm not trying to be a smart ass, I've hiked there many times and I've got no clue where it goes.

How we transmit data in space is far and away completely irrelevant to this matter. Communication over the vast distances of space is made "easy" because radio waves travel through space at the speed of light and are mostly unimpeded. That's not to say it's at all a robust and reliable means of communication. But to transmit and receive data to and from geosynchronous satellites through maybe hundreds even thousands of feet of earth and solid rock is another thing entirely.

In this era of unbridled information, how can one have such a flawed understanding of a pretty basic concept? Boggles the mind.

Could we put a tracking device in a ping pong ball and just wait for it to potentially surface somewhere on earth. Even if it does take years or does get stuck in some kind of air pocket underground at least you might find a final destination eventually...

I would put a video camera in a small clear compact bubble sort of like a beach ball and send it down with a serious tracking device and extended 3 hr battery charger. I'm sure within three hours what is down there would be captured and then the device could be tracked at a later time if it ever surfaced "somewhere"....possibly China? Who knows...maybe thats the hole that connects two points on opposite ends of the earth. Just a thought.

what you could do is use the vidoe camera with some sort of extemely durrable clear bubble and attatch one of those REALLY REALLY long ropes that they use for anchors on ocean liners and then you (probably) could pull it back.

They're either not interested in resolving this mystery or have already resolved it but don't want to tell the public because it's an attraction to tourists and perhaps if they did know or they did answer the mystery people would loose interest in this place.

Mystery is the allure of this place, take that away and it loses it's charm. And some people would benefit more from keeping it a mystery or a secret than not and doesn't harm anyone. Although, doing this is not very ethical to say the least.

Recently saw Jennifers Body & through googling various things as the Internet tends to do ended up here. I'd like to add a few of MHO's, most natural flowing water that disappears into the ground and seemingly a mystery as to it's destination is lost in caverns. It may never resurface or take a long time to reappear if it ever does. The problem with the methods of tracing the path mentioned in the original story is dyes disipate quickly with such volumes of water involved you virtually need truckloads of the stuff to do it right. Logs get caught very easily, ping pong balls will end up in a air pocket since they float easily both of which will not reappear obviously. These methods require that there is an outlet that's fairly close. Caverns can go for miles & it would be a longshot for any object to reappear once it had made it's winding obstacle ridden journey through them. Some groundwater may never reappear even given the apparent volume of water that would flow through the falls the amount of room underground caverns can hold is almost endless. Colored dyes while seemingly a good idea have solid pigments however small that eventually be caught along it's journey a flourescent dye may work if the same water reappeared at all & in relatively the same place which it may be dispersed in several outlets & not just one as most would assume.

I read somewhere that some students planned to do such a thing but I don't know if they ever went through with it. But I also read that a GPS wouldn't work underground, that it needs a line-of-sight. Whether or not that's true, I don't know.

GPS will not work underground cos it uses satellites. It would be better to place a probe into the hole. It could be a very long and strong wire with a few sensors on its end so that you can monitor some things (magentic filed, video/infra camera, temperature, pressure, vibration, etc.) with the connected computer.

if you want to know how far it goes all you have to di si one simple thing...get a few miles of steel 500lb fishing line and forge an 8 ounce sinker onto one of the ends and make sure the rest of the line is on some kind of rotatating spool such as an empty telephone company wooden canle spool.....then all you have too do is sit and wait....if you run out of cable you know it goes farther when it stops cut the cable and measure what you have left subtract it from what you started sith and wah lah..........also you could fashion some kind of water proof beacon on the end that runs on a lithium battery witha delay that will keep going off so you could hear it...bottomline is if the water can flow in and not flow over then somewhere it flows out no matter how big that opening is remains to be discovered...chances are from the looks of this is flows down into a cave and somehwere in the cae the water slowly drains out and chances are this cavern is hundreads of feet deep so it never fills to over flow

It is quite interesting to think about it, but maybe we're overlooking something, maybe we just looking to deep. Devil's Kettle might just be another mystery that the human mind can not comprehend, maybe it is more than just science nature. Sometimes we need to accept the things the way they are and appreciate that there is more to life than see the eye or understands the mind. It is there to remind us that despite our technological advances and our intelligence but we are still human and limited in all we do. We sometimes just have to look and admire, sometimes hope for a divine intervention or a small miracle.

I'm sure they would moniter that closely. besides to carry a body out that far in a hurry for most pyschos just isn't worth the effort for them , that is why they mostly just dump them as quickly as possible. You would have to be truly motivated and determined not to get caught to be patient and not panic to cover every possible base that may or may not discriminate you. Do tell me if you know that many psychos who would have that type of motivation. One or MAYBE two (doubtful) pyschos might do that. In reality, you have nothing to worry about. Unless you fall in the hole, then You would be screwed.

So if astronauts can go into space couldn't they use the same technology that they use to go into space with,like space suits and long very long lifelines attached to them to go in an explore it,alternatively couldn't they build a small vessel like a shuttle of sorts where it would be equipped with enough oxygen and a strong line connected to it so that it can be pulled back from the pothole. And someone in the vessel with the communication tools that astronauts use so that communication would not be lost.

LoL. do you think the government or any privately funded group is going to take the time to make specialized suits? Just get a terran mapping radar, tie it to a string, plop it in the hole let it sink for awhile, pull it back up and then 3d model the data to give you accurate topography of the caves. We have the technology people are just retarded and lazy...

With all the global warming, THEY should tract the water. for one day..... we just might need every single drop, in the rate it's picking up. Laziness is killing our world as we know it...... Hopefully one day some will care to realize it. But you’re right we are a bunch of lazy ass humans. :i

One, that there's what we like to call rain here in the Mitten. Two, I'd be worried about Oil running out long long before water, I got a big V8... and Three, the dude with the steel line and spindle idea is pretty correct except, we gotta throw down a shit ton of big ass hooks and bait too catch whatevers lerkin down deep in that dark ass hole. Cook'em up for dinner.

I looked this up after seeing it on the movie Jennifers Body, but anyway to truly find out where the hole goes has anyone thought to sandbag to fall and/or when the water is flowing at it's least and send a diver down and see where it goes.

I found this phenonmena very interesting also. I wonder how come they didnt divert the water flow for a while and got some cave experts or divers to have a look around while there is no water flowing in. I personaly think this water is going very deep and into the water table. Here in Australia they say some of the old aquafers are holding water over 1000 years old that moves very slowly over large areas underground. If this is happening there you wont be seeing any dies coming out anyplace as its still traveling slowly underground and proberly disapating..... Anyway thats my thoughts for the day :)

Yes Kermit, but we're talking about a hole that lies 1.5 miles from the largest body of fresh water in the world. [Heck] along the north shore here, the depth can drop off to 800 feet with just a couple of miles of the shore, so saying that it goes deep...yeah, it may...but the lake it sits next to is deep too...over 1300 feet at it's deepest! This whole thing is just so flipping interesting, I really wish they'd do a National Geographic show on it or something.

just a thought. why not try a remote robot camera like in themovie the abyss? a device like this would be able to take a lot of water pressure and banging around. the only obvious difficulty is cable lenght. as far as a coverup of the answer to the mystery, a private effort could solve it without "yhem" tampering with the results.

So we build dams all the time that hold back water why not build a temporary one up stream a bit that diverts all the water to the left fall in the season that has the lowest water flow for the river and then send someone down the hole i haven't seen the waterfall in person but from pics it looks like the right side fall could handle the water flow that would happen if they diverted the flow temporarily and I'm sure there are many cave divers/spelunkers that would jump on the chance once it was blocked off to fill the mystery and try and find were it goes.

Lol diverting that amount of water would cost millions who thinks the cost would be worth that.I live in Pennsylvania 10years ago they diverted the Delaware river for ecological reasons or cost taxpayers over 5 million dollars and ther was road access on both sides I can only imagine what diverting the kettle would cost without decent access so no diversion is no option

Yes that is exactly what the government should be spending money on during a time of war and a recession. I can deffinitly see the tax payers of this country being happy with that idea.........think before you talk next time

That was a bit rude. So all the other comments about space suits etc are not going to cost money then? shouldn't you tell everyone else to think before they talk. If you have no constructive critisim why not THINK before you speak yourself next time. The idea sounds pretty good why not save your bad mouthing for facebook

wow dont be so rude anonymous..its a good thought and technically the tax payers arent happy anyways..lol so why not try and solve a big mystery..honestly it would make alot of people happy, because it could very well answer scientific questions as well as maybe historical ones. The government is wasting money on alot more ridiculous things anyways

Layla - as the story relates, over the years people have tossed various things into the pothole never to see them again. It's just not known where (or even if) that part of the river comes out in Lake Superior. Devil's Kettle is located along the North Shore of Lake Superior in Judge C. R. Magney state park between the small communities of Covill and Hovland. The closest large town is Grand Marais, MN located 14 miles southeast of the park on Highway 61.

Yes, once again, my girlfriend and I fell victims to the movie. I immediately paused the flick and started searching online for these "falls". There are a lot of good ideas out there. I'm betting that SOMEONE HAS to know where it ends. I gave it some thought...why not use a tracking device, like the ones they put on whales, sharks, deep dea angler's and stuff? These beast obviously live in the deepest waters of the world and survive through some pretty tough test with Mother Nature, etc.. One could "install" one in something big, like the size of a beach ball or something, stronger though...something...and, well, just wait and track the darn thing? Who knows, perhaps it connects to the river below the falls and they just made this mystery up to attract tourist or something.

I don't understand what the problem is, whether people are illiterate or just don't want to be bothered to read the above comments. YOU CANNOT USE A TRACKING DEVICE LIKE GPS OR WHAT THEY "USE ON WHALES" BECAUSE WATER ABSORBS/DAMPENS PRETTY MUCH EVERY FREQUENCY SO MUCH THAT WE CANNOT "TRACK" THEM UNTIL THEY SURFACE!

Now, using a camera with a cable, seems the only viable option to me. Besides, its just a bunch of water falling into a hole, if you watch Planet Earth or something, you will understand the vastness of underground caverns, and this wouldn't be such a "mystery". But that wouldn't be very good for tourism (you can stay out of my north woods for all i care, the less people the better off nature is)

This could be the water (and water vapor) headed to Yellowstone National Park supplying Old Faithful... Could make sense with the rising of Yellowstone Lake and the upheaval of land in that area; could be a massive amount of air pressure pushing the land up and getting ready for a mammoth explosion. Perhaps The Discovery Channel or NG should explore this to see if there is a correlation before it's too late. Just a thought...

I have to laugh when I see so many people who have watched Jenifer's body and then looked for the Devil's kettle on the net.

But I to did exactly that, and to be honest I was surprised it was fact I was sure it was going to be just part of the movie and fiction.

Of course I would also love to know were the water (and all the other stuff) goes but I would be VERY suprised if scientists did not really know. I bet they have it mapped out etc already but stories like this make money for the area just like Nessie and loch Ness up the road from me.

Speaking of Loch Ness one of the theories for Nessie is there is some kind of portal (time, dimensions etc) in Loch Ness and that is why Nessie appears and disappears etc. Maybe the devils Kettle in one two !!

So anyway can anyone explain to me what all these ping pong balls, logs and a car are doing in Loch Ness *S*

I was unaware of the reference to Devil's Kettle in the "Jennifer's Body" when I first made this post. But you're right, it seems to have drawn lots of readers to this site. I'll have to rent the movie sometime.

Regarding geologists actually knowing where the water goes and not saying: I tend to believe those I've talked to about the subject. As with most conspiracy theories, there'd have to be a whole bunch of people involved to keep such a secret quiet forever, and I don't think our species is capable of keeping its collective yap shut. Over time, allegiances change, personal motives take different directions, people become disgruntled for whatever reason, or just want to come clean. Also, scientists tend to be extremely competitive. If someone did discover where the kettle's water ends up, you can rest assured they'd be making it public in some way or another as fast as possible.

So has anyone ever asked anyone from the government? Are we the only ones interested in the devils kettle? I don't think so. Has there ever been a time in history that devils kettle has been closed, where no one could go near it? That might shed some light on weather there was a government envolvement.

I read a book a couple of days ago, a murder mystery, that included the devil's kettle. The book is Unraveled Sleeve by Monica Ferris. I won't say anything else about the book, in case anyone wants to read it.

Any fish in the river? If so do they have the same trace pollutants in them as the ones in lake superior? A boyant GPS transmitter will show the location when it pops up from the other end.(most likely Lake Superior)

I also watched jennifers body which by the way was a good movie and it had led me to do alittle research as well. Because i didnt think it excisted but one that likes to look up this type of stuff includeing the cresent hotel i think for the devils kettle i think they do need to lower something down in there just to see where it goes and there is such a thing that they can as well as send a cam corder water proof of course to see what all is in there maybe you would be suprised and if any bodies have came up missing well that would be one place to look right if i do say so myself. I am one of those types of people that likes to do research and see what i can find if i was a researcher then i would find out for myself just to see and go from there.Just like paranormal activity you seen what happen well i was at a lake where i live and my husband and i were at the lake fishing one night around midnight and this ghost of some sort was calling my name i looked up and there he stood looking at me wanting me to come into the woods i wouldnt do it and my husband of course made him really mad by flashing the camra he wanted me to do everything he demanded but i didnt listen and he attacked me i had all kinds of bruises and cuts that it was real and of course the police couldnt do anything and his name was joseph he had rapped a couple of girls out there and then killed them and then killed himself my 2 sister in laws were there with us that night and had seen it all as well as my husband so talk about spine chilling thats just like what people need to do is investigate that type of stuff like this beautiful waterfall see where it goes just to be curious..

Like many others, Jennifer's Body is what brought me here. Really interesting to know that it is actually really. Kind of scary, reminds me of that one movie THE DESCENT. But anyways what i think they should do is block the water from entering like creating a dam and then send something down there. Either a person (if they fit) or a little camera. If we can do space explorations im sure the government can do underground explorations. Who knows might lead to some secret underground civilization lol but that would be awesome to find out. I also agree that they probably know where it leads to but not want anyone to know.

WE ACTUALLY DO NOT WANT TO KNOW HOW THE WATER FLOWS BUT WANT TO KNOW FROM WHERE THE WATER ARISES. NOW GPS LOCATORS ARE WEAK I KNOW BUT IT IS WHEN IT IS INSIDE THE DEVIL'S KETTLE. FROM SOME POINT WHERE IT ARISES IT WILL BE ABLE TO CATCH THE SIGNAL AND RESPOND. NOW WE CAN TRACE THE PATH FROM WHERE THE GPS LOCATOR LOST THE SIGNAL TO POINT WHERE THE LOCATOR RECOVERED THE SIGNAL AGAIN. IN THIS WAY WE CAN TRACE FROM WHERE THE WATER RISES AGAIN.

Why try to find out where it goes or what is down there, why can't we just leave it is one of those wonders that never gets figured out, I rather think.....no..HOPE there are things out there that science cannot explain, good to see one mystery that has yet to be debunked.

The reason why we cannot leave it alone is becuase it is our Nature, alaways has and always will be. This is who we are. Eventually Science does explain everything, it is why we know what we know today that better explains CRAP theories and frekin fairy Tales!!

they have GPS's or whatever that can go to mars and be transmitted back to earth. though it still does recover after reflecting off all the particles in space. You would think the government has a device that can last through layers of rock... but i live in minnesota and has never seen this, once i saw jennifers body i want to see it really bad!

hahaha.. that is the same thoughts that I have, and now doing research on Devil's Kettle because of the movie, and same, i'm from the twin cities, and it's gonna be a bish... driving up there, but i'm sure it's well worth it

IS IT POSSIABLE THE FORCE OF THE WATER HAS CREATED A MASSIVE UNDERGROUND CAVE SYSTEM THAT TRAVELS MILES DOWN. AND IT COULD POSSIABLY ENTER ON THE FLOOOR OF MILACS LAKE OFF THE SHORE A FAR WAY OUT. AND IF ITEMS DO EXIT AT THAT DEPH IT WOULD BE CRUSHED FROM THE PRESSURE OF THE WATER. COULDENT WE DAM UP THE WATER AND REDIRECT IT. PROB A RROAB AND FLARE. SEND A DIVER DOWN WITH TANK AND PLENTY OF LINE OR A CAMREA AND SEE HOW DEEP IT TRAVELES AND OR SEE IF IT JUST ENDS IN THE ROCK. OR OPTION NUMBER TO IS TO SET UP A BEACON PROBE WITH A WATER PROOF CASE. AND ATTACH SOME KIND OF AIR SYSTEM ON A TIMER SO WHEN IT EXITS AN AIRBAG INFLATES AND LIFTS THE BEACON TO THE SURFACE

Woah. This just blows my mind! I've never heard of Devil's Kettle (or Jennifer's Body, for that matter) and I've lived in Minnesota most of my life. Now I know where I'm headed on my next vacation up north...

Minnehaha Falls: With all the Spring flooding, this is a great time of year to see (and hear!) these raging waters. (Seriously, go check it out!)Courtesy Jesper Rautell Balle
Hey! Some of you might not know, but our very own Minneapolis boasts a 53-foot natural waterfall called Minnehaha Falls that is definitely worth checking out.

I definitely think NatGeo or Discovery or some other similar TV show needs to get behind figuring out this really cool geologic mystery. (After all, I'm not diving into that abyss anytime soon myself.)

I would agree, I'm also in MN for my entire life, and actually born here in MN, but Devil's Kettle is going to be my on the road trip vacation there. After watching the movie, it's pretty great, and actually research to see if it is real or actually exist, but I'm suprised that it actually exist.

I too saw the movie "jennifers Body" and at the first mention of the Devil's Kettle falls i paused it and began researching.

My thoughts are to get a really long length of waterproof electrical wire and every so often have a ball the size of a basketball (sort of like the design of lights on a christmas tree). Electricity is pumped the wire which powers a mechanism inside the ball which makes it super hot.

We then get a thermal device and track the location of the balls because the heat signatures show through the rock. (A thermal device like the one used in Aliens vs Predator when a Weyland Industries satellite registers a heat bloom underneath i think it was 2 kilometres of ice) Thermal device DO exist as last year in Australia a politician was lost in the snow and they used a thermal device to locate his body heat. The governent tried to cover it up but word of their methods got out to the public.

I would very much like to know where all the water goes and what has happened to all the stuff that has been thrown down the hole.

I think that someone should put waterproof cameras, like they use to get pics of the ocean floor and fish, down devels kettle and see what goes on down there. There could be many possibilities and there could even be some missing people down there. Either way I just wonder why scientists havent figured out a way or put effort into seeing down devels kettle. Another possibility could be to dig into the rock formation around it somehow or knock the rock wall down to see what is happpening in there.

I, like many, began researching this strange phenomenon after watching "Jennifer's Body". I am very excited to see this is a real place. I'm sure tons of teens have thrown things down the kettle.. messages in bottles, love notes from ex-lovers, wishes,.. etc. It is rather scary to think how easy it could be for a body to disappear down there. I would hate to slip.
I don't know why this is so fascinating to me. I guess because the human mind is drawn to the unknown. Its so weird that no one can find out where all the water, ping pong balls, logs, etc.. go.
Very strange.

I think it all goes down into a water table or something like that. I've been there before, and it's pretty cool. There are lots of videos of it on Youtube.com. My family and I hiked farther up the trail past the falls and we were able to cross the river onto these "islands" that were off to the side of the Brule that had water flowing in between them. We crossed on rocks that stuck out above the water, then walked around one island and crossed a fallen birch tree that was like 5 in. above the water to another island. It was pretty cool. We also found a beaver dam blocking the water between two islands and it made like a mini waterfall!

Thermal devices do exist, that is hardly a government secred. Infra-red wavelength is close to that of visible light and just like light will not penetrate any solid obstacle bar a few transparent or translucent materials. Tens of metres of rock is not a transparent or translucent material, thermal imaging will not work.

As some people have mentioned, chances are good that the answer is known to someone somewhere, but who wants to let the truth get in the way of a good story? It very likely empties into lake superiors water table at some point, need not even empty into the lake itself.

Hmmm just saw the movie and am really glad this is a real place very very interesting.....

Im not sure where the water is going since most the geological evidence doesnt support what most would think but it has to go somewhere and has to do it in a rather efficent and fast manner to displace all that water without causing a back-up.....

Seems any device, craft, person etc you would send in there would come under very extreme forces and be completely engulfed in darkness......

Hmm maybe a small sonic device capable of mapping the inner chamber could be capable of giving us a idea though it would still have to deal with the forces of half a river of water rushing around but this seems the most viable way of mapping at least the first of which im sure are many chambers. from there that could at least give a idea of where the water is going out of the first chamber chasm whatever.....

Just a idea. You would need a sufficent anchoring system to stabalize the platform for consistent images but at least you would get some kinda idea....not to mention building a rig to get the whole thing lowered into place....would have to have the parks and geological surveys permission etc etc you get the idea but def would be fun to figure out the mystery.

Redirect the water and enter the hole, no better way to find out really. cameras are only gona show rocks and water, soooo helpful. gps n all that dont work, so plug it up and get down there. i dont see why if anybody knew the falls secret that it would be worth keeping its secret just to support the tourism of devils kettle. is the surrounding community really worth it? but even if the falls were to get blocked so someone could go down, there would probly be a huge bunch of people who would have a big fat cry and try stop it happening.
i think its interesting but im not going to lose sleep over not knowing where the waters heading. into the ground, so what.
but with the growing interest in this place thanks to the movie maybe the government might start looking into figuring it all out. who knows.

as for the movie, nothing great really, apart from Megan Fox is in it =)

Okay..so I'm thinking maybe someone or some scientist can strap a small water proof camcorder on a fish?....and send it down that whole..like divers do under water?...and maybe they see what is going on down there.....because fish are great swimmers.....you can see and track where they go....

water that goes down your drain and into your septic system, or city water treatment plant, is returned to the earth. where the earth purifies it and sends it back up.
all the junk they throw down there gets hung up somewhere. cant go further as the hole is too small, can come back because of water pushing it back in.
any kind of dye wont work because the earth purifies it.
they do use tracking dyes in rural septic systems if someone's well is getting contaminated. government comes through and flushes the dyes down every body's toilet in the area. then test the well to see which dye shows up.
new a guy once that got the bright idea of hooking his septic system to an old underground irrigation system, to save money on a septic system. when sewage showed up all over town they flushed the dye, and his dye showed up all over town.
but these leaks do not enter the water table.
I would also be careful about involving the government in solving this mystery, they will hire some company that will pump something like that gasoline additive, MTBE was it? the stuff that traveled miles underground and polluted everything.you will find where it goes, have to evacuate the state, but you will have your answer.
I would just dam it, divert it, and climb in.
but, im telling you, you wont see anything. well, probably find a huge dumb of prehistoric people, animals, artifacts and a whole lot of criminal evidence. and a lot of ping pong balls.

I too have been directed here while watching the movie Jennifer's body and I can't believe nobody, including the scientists, havn't thought about re-directing the river water from the west side to the east side and stop the water from going into the hole. By doing this, scientists would then be able to do a more acurate hands on study of the hole and find out where it leads.

I watched jennifer's body and decided to search devil's kettle. My mom believes that one stream leads to hell the other to even. Does anyone know if anyone put a camera down there? If they haven't tried it they should.

my thought, do a science experiment and cut the bottom off a plastic bottle, fill an aquarium half full and place the bottom quarter of the bottle in the water... add a funnel then water to the bottle, well the bottle (devils kettle) will never fill up nor will the aquarium (lake beneath). My bet, there is a small lake like body of water under the surface and from that is an under water channel the reverts to a surface body of water. Everything that has been thrown in floats or sinks so never makes its journey through the channel, and the under ground body of water may be to large so absorbs the die that has been used as water is continually flushing in.

I have studied this phenomena and conducted several experiments and finally found the answer.
Far up-stream before the river splits to go in two different directions to the east & to the west, this river flows over a vast river bed and conected system that is very unusual and found know where on earth. This section of river bed that I speak about as far as I can conclude is 3/4 of a mile long and 1/4 of a mile deep. This quadrant of river-bed I call Porositybedrock... This is:>

Used in geology, hydrogeology, soil science, and building science, the porosity of a porous medium (such as rock or sediment) describes the fraction of void space in the material, where the void may contain, for example, air or water. It is defined by the ratio:

where VV is the volume of void-space (such as fluids) and VT is the total or bulk volume of material, including the solid and void components. Both the mathematical symbols φ and n are used to denote porosity.

This equation along with my experiments concludes that the river bed 3/4 of a mile long by 1/4 of a mile deep is structured like a sponge where by letting water in or more so out.
50% of the H2o that flows over this 3/4 mile of Porositybedrock is recycled from all of the H2o that flows into the abyss/hole from the west river. The H2o falls into a system, tube like cannels 1/4 of a mile under ground and is drawn back 3/4 of a mile back up-stream by hydraulic pressure and forced back up through the Porositybedrock to flow once again down the same path as it has done for eons.
All past experiments have failed because of the natural filtration properties the earth has. Ping-pong balls, dyes, and other pollution have been long filtered out. By the time that same water reaches back up-stream to flow down-stream once again there are no signs of what humans have done.
Prove me wrong...

OK first of all. Too many people here are just plain illiterate. (Meaning you CAN'T READ!)

Many people posted that GPS will not work because of the signal penetrating rocks. That should tell you, NO MEANS OF RADIO TRANSMISSION WILL WORK!

The idea of a small, robotic vehicle with a camera on a tether is the best one out there. No human will go down there, even with the water diverted, why? what is one other explanation as to where this place goes that NO ONE has mentioned?

I had the pleasure of visiting this beautiful park this weekend. The hike was very tiring, but so worth it. Upon reaching the actual lower portion of the falls, the energy of the area changed.

I felt uneasy. like someone or something was there, pulling at me. the farther up the last set of stairs I got, the strong the negative energy became. At the top, I watched as 3 guys, all in good shape, struggled to make a very easy return trip across a few rocks from the actual hole the water flows into. The return trip seriously involved 5 decent sized stones in the river to get to shore, and they had a hard time with it.

I decided to pay my respects to the falls and went to the edge of the falls myself, and as I got closer, it felt like hands were grabbing me trying to pull me in. ( think of the scene at the end of the Scorpion King with all the hands pulling Imotep down.)

I bet 90% of you reading this are going to call BULL**** and laugh, and the other 10% are going to understand. But perhaps, the reason NO ONE will go down there and nothing to date has worked is because it leads to a place no one wants to admit. It's called Devil's Kettle for a reason and perhaps once you go in, there is no coming out.

I looked up Devil's Kettle after Jennifer's Body became my favorite movie of all time...

I was suprised to see that Devil's Kettle is real. Now, the one in the movie and the real one are very different when it comes to appearence, but of course the Hollywood version is going to look like that - but the most important factor is that the mystery of the real Devil's Kettle is not fiction.

And maybe, just maybe...that's how we like it?

I don't know about anyone else, but I've watched a million National Geographic or Science Channel specials about mysteries of the world, or UFOs, or "Monsters" ...and you know what? I always feel a little ping of dissapointment when they lead you through the whole episode with a snotty scientist who tells you a perfectly factable explanation. Why can't we keep a few mysteries unsolved? The truth is boring people. I can tell you, we will keep talking about and admiring Devil's Kettle as long as it's a mystery. Garunteed, if they DID do a NATGEO special or Science Channel special and DID find out where it goes - none of us would be fascinated anymore. We'd just say ..."Oh.." and move on with our lives and never wonder about it again.

I like that we still have unsolved mysteries of the world. It's our human nature to want to know the truth of the earth we live on, but I think it's also important to our human nature to still have things to wonder at. Can you imagine how boring the world would be without places like Devil's Kettle? I'm personally glad that it's a mystery and hope that it stays that way.

Here you go, get thousands of feet of REM wire or antenna wire and attach the tracking device to it, throw it in, and hope you got enough wire. Easy to make in large abundances and fairly in-expensive. Otherwise I bet it just ends up in the Superior or maybe another lake and as I saw above, the ping pong balls just get stuck... Dyes... well come on now, and logs have the same issue as the pong balls.

The river water must be warmer than Lake Superior in the Summer. Just take a boat out into the Lake and drop a remote digital thermometer on a long cable down into the lake to search for the warmer water. Then when the slightly warmer spot is found, send a diver down to investigate the source of the warmer water. In the Winter the undergound water coming out would also be at a slightly different temperature. When the river freezes in the Winter, there might be a spot in the river where it doesn't freeze over as soon because the underground water is warmed by underground rocks. In either case the outlet temperature would be slightly different from the other water near the outlet!

yeah yeah i watched the movie too. mdr you seem to be checking out these comments pretty regularly. okay i've read most of them. diverting the river is what i thought of too. but here's a good one. we need to send something down that would have the instinct to get out.
attached to it some sort of waterproof pressure proof recording device. obviously it wont be able to transmit until the device surfaces, so a mammal would be a good idea. or several mammals (example seals) to increase the chances of getting a result. there should be air pockets which they would find so they should be able to survive. and when they surface we get a bleep on one of several satellites tracking the mammals with an instant upload of the video footage.

I've been working on scuba-otter for a while now, albeit for another project. (I won't get into it, but I will say this: we could finance Devil's Kettle exploration with the money I rake in from stolen pool toys.)

Here's the problem: I can only get the little otters to hold onto the mouthpiece if a) they're already dead, or b) I wrap it in salmon. The former is useless, really, and the latter is no good unless I can find some variety of salmon that an otter can breathe through.

you dont need scuba. there should be many air pockets for the otter to breathe in. besides if you had to master the scuba idea you would have to ensure an unlimited supply of oxygen(difficult). and if u dont and the otter are not found before their oxygen runs out nobody would be able to release them, and they would be removed from the equation. i think jus send them down there with a waterproof recording device on otter size backpacks. anyway this site is way too addictive. i have work to do. chat again 2moro

Sorry, J.Gordan. you r right. we dont know if there r air pockets. jus thought it would be worth the gamble, but that may mean knocking off an otter or two and agaoin u r right, that is insensitive. maybe tagging a few hundred salmon and releasing them into devils kettle and just waiting to see where most would be caught could give us an idea.

has anyone considered asking someone like...i dunno...destination truth? t.v. show is the best way to go since they have the funds to figure something out, granted its not a monster or ghost, but its a mysterious hole and we obviously want the truth

I would divert the water flow into the adjacent water flow and wait till the water recedes down the hole then send down a couple of cavers. More than likely the water flow is dissipated off into many channels and eventually perforates up into Lake Superior.

Hi I understand all the different opinions about how a tracking divice would not work as they don't work underground but they would show up when they resurfaced - I thought that was the whole point was to see where the water ends up! So send down a tracking device and when it reappears you will have the answer. (If it reappears!) Seems simple to me. Maybe they don't want the mystery resolved due to the tourist interest.

The movie mad me look this up. Very cool, but it's not like it's niagara falls. you could divert the water adn send a line down. There are things like this all over the planet. I live in Rome N.Y. and there is a place called hidden lake no bottom. They have sent lines down all sorts of stuff. People have put old cars in there and miles of line, they run out? I think it is something to do with cooling the planet. The earths core is thousands of degrees hot. keep googling there is a place in death valley arizona called devils hole. There is more than 36,000 square miles of water under there. Divers have gone down 300 feet and have not seen no signs of the bottom. Cool stuff!!1

In The 1990s, New York State Stopped The Flow Of Water Going Over Niagara Falls. Why Not Do The Same At Devil's Kettle? Divert The Flow From The West To The East And Just Look In The Damn Thing.
Hopefully, Spelunkers Would Be Able To Investigate The Passageway(s).

I agree with the tracking device. I have read all the comments and understand that those wont work down there, but isnt the main reason to find out this that we find out where it ends and then start to investigate it from that way maybe? Someone could message guys at Discovery channel and let they figure this out maybe.

The problem with a cable is its pretty much guaranteed to get tangled at some point. It's highly likely the flow of the water has many twists, turns, and obstacles. Also, long cables tend to weigh a lot, and even if it floated, somethings got to pull it. A small electrical device simply won't do it.
The problem with GPS is that it will not be able to transmit unless it surfaces. The problem with ANY electrical device is that it must survive the impact of a rapid curent and hard stone, and there is no guarantee that it won't simply be blocked by any random geological structure (not just rocks, but peat bogs, sandbars, etc). Yes it could transmit if it surfaced in Superior, but again, how will it navigate the current? If it is buoyant it will get caught in an air pocket, and if its heavy it will sink. If its motorized it would need to be able to transmit a signal to be controlled, and that's not going to happen. Self navigating devices do exist, but they are currently relatively horrible and we do not possess the tech to make it work, point blank.
A camera would be great, but then it would not only have to light its surrounding area but also be able to train itself on relevant angles, which it cannot be told to do because we cannot send a signal from above that would reliably transmit to the device. Further, since signals can't be transmitted, we would need to physically retrieve the camera, which is the whole problem to begin with.
To further complicate the issue, who says it even ends in one place? Many rivers underground and above lead off into many different places.
Diverting the flow of a river is a lot more expensive than you think (simply google it to see the millions or billions of dollars required), and I don't see it happening to figure out what simply is a tourist destination.
Sending a diver down would require a cable, and would be EXTREMELY dangerous. There is no guarantee again that the diver would even be able to physically get through what could be thousands of divergent holes, or simple a filtering peat bog. Whats more, we are talking about traveling a mile or more underground in a potentially lethal route, with no guarantee you could get back out. If you reached a point where you had to turn around, how would you fight the current? For the cable argument, please see above.
Dyes dissipate, and Lake Superior is a big freakin lake. End of story there.
Not trying to be a jerk here, but we have to realize this is something doctorate level scientists-some of the top 5% of our intellectual make up- have been puzzling over for years. These ideas have almost certainly been mulled over and rejected for the reasons listed above and more. The solution may exist, but it either is not feasible to will have to be FAR more complicated then using a fishing line and a prayer.

all the tracking beacon people are missing the point...
1. GPS can be blocked by a TREE CANOPY....it is usless for this
2. where it emerges is a moot point because the thing obviously catches objects thrown into it.
3. a diver could not withstand being crushed into rocks by thousands of newtons of fluid force.

but

the BEST, but non environmentally friendly way to solve this would be to dump a few tons of colored styrofoam balls, the really tiny ones that are a few milimeters in diameter and find them....hopefully, but who knows what kind of ecosystem might exist in the cavern? so this is not a justifiable risk.

As everyone has stated, the tracking device is not a viable option for unraveling the Devil's Kettle mystery. I think the allure of this place is the fact that no one really knows where it leads. I have visited the Devil's Kettle two times and would love to see it again. It wouldn't be nearly as special if we knew exactly how it worked and where the water came out. It is one of my favorite tourist attractions because of the fact that I don't understand it, not to mention it's immense beauty. The "unknown" aspect is what draws us to it and to change that would be a mistake.

A probe might look like this: A neutrally buoyant fist-sized device housing a GPS receiver, a battery, a water-filled bladder with a one way valve, a satellite phone transmitter, and a small high-pressure CO2 cartridge.

The device is running on a timer: after a certain number of hours, the CO2 cartridge empties some of the water from the bladder to give it positive buoyancy, and the GPS receiver starts searching for satellites. When the GPS receiver gets a fix while floating on the surface, the satellite phone transmitter begins sending out coordinates.

For this volume of water, there probably exists an outflow with dwell time of less than a month. I can reasonably guarantee that this approach will find it if the outflow has successfully eroded away filtering barriers.

LOL,this thing is awesome i took a research about it after watching jennifers body to,i dont think that it was also true the devils kettle i think it was just added for the movie but i was shocked when i knew that it was true it was very mystirious, i think it was going down to hell LOL!

I too seen the movie (don't waste your time to watch it) I did read all the post and I think that dye would work. One time at work we put 2 gollons of water based ink down then drain(oops!!!) It dyed the towns waste water to the point that they could not filter it out and had to let it go down the river dyeing it as well.

A littel dye goes a long way. We had to pay a fine for it so get the EPA'S ok first.

The amswer to this ages old mystery is simple. It is an interstellar wormhole created by alien beings billions of years ago. The water travels into the hole and comes out on a planet many light years away.
Nano, nano!

Maybe someone already suggested this & I missed it, but, what about an underwater camera with remote viewing? Granted, it likely won't capture signs (like the post in "MASH" pointing the way to states & countries), but if it does come out somewhere, maybe the scenery will be recognizable...or we may have the 1st pics from hell. Gotta take a lot of water to try to put out the fires down there!

Not sure if any one has tried it yet but, the DNR has radio tags that they implant fish with to track where they go, granted these work using GPS which will not work under ground however if tagged fish were released into the hole i am sure they would find a way out some where, at that point its just a matter of waiting until the fish are caught to find where the hole goes. Although if I were to guess the water probably winds up coming out of a gyser in yellowstone.

I like the thought of finding out where the water actually flows rather than where the water resurfaces like someone already pointed out, there could be a very complex ecosystem down there. Oh and stop suggesting the same ideas as everyone else, it makes for a boring read (i.e. GPS). The reason mdr keeps commenting is because this is his article.

Please tell me we as a society are not this dumb. For example, sending a gps unit down a water filled hole would do nothing, just like the ping pong balls. If this GPS device were to float, it would simply be stuck in the abyss forever. There is no way a floating device would be able to mysteriously stop floating and go down a hole, if that is where this tunnel leads. It is able to get down this first portion because the water forces it down. Also, simple radiowave technology tells us that a GPS singal would do nothing while underground, so once it is under, we are essentially blind. High frequency can not travel through rock, or any other dense surface for that matter. Does your GPS work while you are in a praking garage? NO! So now try that same concept hundreds of feet below the surface. The only way to figure this out would be to send a tethered camera of some sort down the hole. Yes, tehthered, as in a camera connected to hundreds of feet of wire that would house a cable that would send the signal back to the surface. Sure, connect a GPS so that after days of being below the surface, once it popped out you would be able to track it. But the likely scenario would show that this camera would ultimately get stuck in some underground section that is too narrow for even a ping pong ball to fit. There is no way water simply vanishes, and who cares where it comes out. It could be a natural spring, geyser, or even the bottom of lake Superior. The bottom line is this water has a destination, we just haven't put forth the effort to find it.

apparently they have put dye in the water to see where it comes out, but they would need alot of dye because a fair bit of water goes down they and the dye would just spread out and eventually not be noticed so it would have to surface very close or this theory would not work

It leads to a very commonly found underwater river or lake that likely ends up in lake superior one way or another. No one has investigated it because the result would be obvious and uninteresting. You conspiracy theorists need more meds

I feel we should use an approach similar to the Russian method whereby underwater exploration takes place primarily with the use of special military trained sea turtles. It just makes the best sense, why reinvent the wheel?

Cant they just send some kind of tracking device down the hole, so where ever it comes out it sends a signal and be located? It would need a looooong lasting battery and low consumption, but its possible.

I like the tracking device approach; one could even outfit it NOT to transmit until it was back to sea-level.

If you look up ?? oil industry wire-equipment -- for checking the slant of a drilled hole - they only go about 5-10 kft -- not nearly long enuf - and bulky etc. That site looks quite remote to bring serious equipment into; trash the pristine surroundingsetc.

Well I say that some one aut-to put a GPS down there even if u can't find it until it SURFACES because isn't that what everyone wants to know is when it SURFACES?? Just a thought that I wanted to share.... If all you think that's reasonable I will go and and try it sometime!!! Just saying...

Easy way to get publicity to devils kettle kill some one chuck them down it and send letter to the police saying where the body is few month every one will know the answer when government search it for the body

Most likely the flow of water branches out into several small underground rivers. They have looked for a single underground river that it drains to but cant find it. I would suggest looking for several small ones instead of one big one.

I hate to be the one that completely solves the problem, but hey I am an engineer. First off knowledge is power. Recently I read about an experiement that sent nutrinoes through tons of rock and concrete which then displayed the text message "nutrinoes". The article explained that because of the physics and components of a nutrino it can pass through possibly billions of miles of matter before 1 out of a billion are detered. They are actually using this as a potential solution for a space mission to the dark side of the moon. As we should all know, there is no electromagnetic field that can pass through the moon to the other side (ie: GPS, Wireless, microwaves or even gamma). Rendering nutrino communication the only known method, which was recently discovered to be true. So we attach a very small receiver to a semi boyant ball place it down the hole. Using the nutrino tech we can constantly tell where the ball is. Heck if the ball is more of a device we could even send photage back to a reciever, rendering imagery and location. Although this is pretty applicable this experiement would not be evident for another 10 years or so, for the tech to be more developed.

True, you can't track a transponder far undergruond, but at least if you can be watching for it using GPS, so you'll know where the water is resurfacing, if it does -- half a mystery solved is still a good start!

Then you could put a camera on a robotic boat with a wire lead trailing behind, so you can watch exactly where the water is coming from, starting at the exit. . .
One could even drop a camera-laden float in the top & have a mile or two of cable attached to it, to see as far in as possibnle -- that may give critical clues as to what's going on below. . .

Surely it just goes deep enough for it to hit the earths mantle? Inner core or even core, highly likely it is the core but who is to say I it is undiscovered and is unable to reach? The water would go and it would dissolve into oxygen then into The atmosphere it would slowly rise up and there would
Be more than enough holes through this hole where the condensation could disappear to, as for the table tennis balls and logs and anything beig thrown dow there the depth of the hole would or could make it shatters on the way down, if it's a big enough fall It would break and everything slowly dissolves over time right ?

I dove into Devil's Kettle once & when I finally came out on the other end, I was somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle. There were thousands of spaceships & aliens down there. Not to mention alot of old ships & aircrafts. The weird thing is when I turned around to go back the way I came, I didn't come back out at the Devil's Kettle. I was in some sort of different dimension. I guess it must be a portal or something. Nobody seems to believe me though. Go figure. Now that I've answered the question of where Devil's Kettle leads, the new mystery is why the route back becomes a detour to a new dimension. At least this gives us an idea of how the aliens may be getting here.

Easy Divert the water so it all go;s towards the Lake let the hole dry out then fine out where it go;s by hiking it then when you know reopen the old water route back to the falls and done No tracking device needed simple solution

the way i see it is if you guys are so interested in whats down there, how about you guys put your words into action!!! drop a GPS see if it works, drop colored foam balls down ther, or a camra inside an object like a ball.... dont talk about it do it!!!

Okay, I've been reading through some of these comments, some of the higher up ones that question the method of a camera on wire could be plausible, and should be tested.

The ones questioning the use of human divers is too, plausible, but who in their right mind would go down there, knowing that in all likelihood its a one way trip.

And now on to the the retarded and utterly stupid ideas and comments:
1. "they have GPS's or whatever that can go to mars and be transmitted back to earth. though it still does recover after reflecting off all the particles in space. You would think the government has a device that can last through layers of rock... but i live in minnesota and has never seen this, once i saw jennifers body i want to see it really bad!"

The signals they use to communicate with such probes on Mars such as Curiosity are not GPS, as far as I am aware, still like many of the smart people here have said, GPS is a weak signal, it is relayed through satellites in geosynchronous orbit miles up above the atmosphere, it would then also have to travel through possible thousands of feet of solid rock, so for a GPS to be tossed down into the Devil's Kettle, would be utterly ridiculous and would NOT work.

The next, possibly even more idiotic comment I saw was this one:
"I too saw the movie "jennifers Body" and at the first mention of the Devil's Kettle falls i paused it and began researching.

My thoughts are to get a really long length of waterproof electrical wire and every so often have a ball the size of a basketball (sort of like the design of lights on a christmas tree). Electricity is pumped the wire which powers a mechanism inside the ball which makes it super hot.

We then get a thermal device and track the location of the balls because the heat signatures show through the rock. (A thermal device like the one used in Aliens vs Predator when a Weyland Industries satellite registers a heat bloom underneath i think it was 2 kilometres of ice) Thermal device DO exist as last year in Australia a politician was lost in the snow and they used a thermal device to locate his body heat. The governent tried to cover it up but word of their methods got out to the public.

I would very much like to know where all the water goes and what has happened to all the stuff that has been thrown down the hole."

First off, Thermal equipment would not work. Not in this situation. You would not be able to track such a faint source of heat through all the rock, such as something the size of a basketball. Secondly, what kind of mechanism would you propose you could create and then stuff in to a container of that size, the whole idea is just preposterous. Thirdly, you plan to use a "A thermal device like the one used in Aliens vs Predator when a Weyland Industries satellite registers a heat bloom" You do realise that doesn't exist right, and that in the Fictional film that heat bloom was created by advanced alien technology and would of been several kilometres across. Its just not going to work.

Finally -
This phenomena is indeed very interesting and an answer would be nice, I think your all expecting to much. The most likely explanation is it all drains into a series of massive caverns, which may NOT have an exit, the water can simply soak away into the rock and head towards the nearest water source, being the adjacent lake, this would mean methods like ping-pong balls and dyes are pointless. It may just stay locked up in there for millennia to come.
For now it remains a geological wonder which will mystify the world for generations to come.

You have a point...but, i think that they could easily just redirect the flow...wait acouple days (one day) have someone (or video device) on a cable down through the hole (you never know...it might not be a massive cave system) and see whats down there...but then there will be more comments on how stupid my idea is. but mine is way more logical then almost all of everybody else's ideas. (REALLY... a space suit? i'm sorry but that was one of the most retarded comments i have ever seen on this.

Simple solution to solve the mystery!
Encapsulate (waterproof) one of the "Black Box's" that are used on comercial aircraft in the event of a crash... everytime a plane goes down the black box transmits a signal on a specific frequency. The signal will not penetrate solid rock.... so, you connect the black box to a delayed timer so that it does not start transmitting its signal for one week ! The encapsulation around the black box would be engineered and calculated to keep its buoyancy slightly submerged (8-10 inchs) below the water surface to keep it from being stranded in a pocket in the cave/stream/kettle. If, after a week (when the transmitter starts to send out its signal) the signal goes undetected or is undetectable one can assume it's trapped in the devils Kettle somewhere. If after two weeks of no signal...... I have a second solution which I will implement as a fail-safe measure. I must keep this solution discreet until the proper time.

you think it would be illegal to jump in the hole and find out whats there? this is my new life's goal now XD. Maybe there's treasure :D! The arc of the covenant XD? Aliens? tacos???? who knows :D. im gonna go in that hole one day and find out XD. if you see something on the news about a crazy man gone missing in a hole without and end, that will be me :D!

It won't work. Transponders that are used on fish only work because the signal eventually goes out into air. The kettle is underground. No fish would survive being dashed into rocks at high speeds for a very long time, not to mention humans with breathing gear. A cable might work, but the pull from the water will be incredibly strong. As for diverting the river, it will cost a lot, and will need to be carefully planned out. If the kettle happens to lead into Lake Superior, going that far is simply too dangerous for us humans. Long story short, it's a mystery that's really hard to solve.

I understand that locator beacons won't work due to 1. the rock formations blocking the signal until the device comes back up and 2. the device possibly never coming back up (gets stuck, bobs up and down in a cavern, etc. etc.).
Given the cost and size reduction of these devices for purposes of smartphones, however, it could still be worth a shot. If they don't pop up - well, at least you can be pretty sure that they do get stuck. For better luck, use fish - they tend to do well at getting themselves out of hairy situations and going with whatever flow exists in the water.

A more passive option, and which can be made much smaller still, would be buoyantly neutral particles. They would have to be fluorescent so that they can be more easily picked up - perhaps even be made mildly radioactive (if there's one thing we know how to measure thanks to nuclear threats, it's deviations from background radiation) using a relatively short-lived isotope. The 'buoyantly neutral' bit is really the important part - ping pong balls are great for surface water flows but are horrible for underground flows. Not sure why they even bothered unless they tried to make them buoyantly neutral as well.

However, three methods I have not seen mentioned are:
- ground penetrating radar - which has a fairly limited range, but should work quite well through solid rock and, as a result, figure out deviations in density and thus any underground canals.
- through the earth communication - which uses very low frequencies (unlike GPS and cellphones) to transmit signals through hundreds of meters of earth and, given appropriate receiver configuration, could be used for triangulation. The signal on the carrier wave need only be a beep that can easily be recovered.
- slightly less respectful of whatever is down there, explosions. These needn't be large explosions; even a big firecracker should do the trick of generating enough of a spike in vibration that seismometers/geophones can pick up. Again given an appropriate configuration and some knowledge of wave propagation through the expected materials, triangulation could be performed. Successive detonations at longer intervals could then be used to map a probable flow. ( Note that while googling, I found that firecrackers literally were used for a similar purpose in a ground water table survey, but detonated above ground; Google: "Geological Survey Professional Paper, Volume 550, Part 2" plus 'firecracker', it goes into a fair bit of detail. )

These ideas may also already have been explored by greater minds and discarded for various reasons - I just didn't see them mentioned in the comments (though there are a lot and I scrolled past a few of the capslock-stuck ones).

That said, I'm fine with this remaining a 'mystery' - it'll help keep this thread going for a few more years at least ;)

As many others have watched the film as i did and fallen into the trap ( no pun intended ) and I also googled the Devils falls.
Then to find so many comments on how to find out how deep the hole goe's. There's been lots of ideas 5mile steel lines ,ping pong balls , transmitters , one man subs , ect .
Asumming the water goes to the lake
One thought was to messure from the suface of the water from the lake to a satalite or heicopter, keeping a constant altitude , then retaking the messurement over the devils kettle at 1.5 miles from the shore line of the lake.
Useing a profile scale from the water line from the lake running it level to 1.5 miles to the point of messurement at the falls from the satalite or hellicopter , then talking a virticle line at that point to the surface, you can callculate the distdance down to where the water level is , the distance would be the calculation from the water line at the devils hole to the suface rock, If we assume its 3miles 1200ft from a hellicopter at the shore of the lake and 1.5 miles in land at the falls ,its 3 miles meens the differance is 1200ft . so some where along the devils hole at 1200 ft , the water going into the hole will find its own level and maybe quite a large area quite calm lake body of water thats assuming that it does enter the lake being the closest point. At the point where the two levels meet is probable where there's a cavern or open area where the pinpong balls are.
I hope ive not board you Im no maths tutor just a sailor so Ive probable got wrong.

It's a tourist attraction!! Scientists have been working on this for years, my opinion is that they already know we're it goes but are keeping it hush to attract. Archeologists spend thousands scanning fields etc looking to unearth history! scientists do the same! i think they have the answer. it is a very interesting subject. I wonder how far back the kettle goes, When was it first discovered??

send a person down id volenter but id have a couple of conditions , a hand gun, a companion some serions food and water and body armour, a flashlight, a lighter and some form of comunication like a walkie talkie or something

When I go to College in almost ten years, I'm going to see if I can design a probe to drop down the falls. This is my basic plan.
1. It would have a GPS to track its position.
2. It would have a camera attached to take video/pictures for scientific purpose.
3. It would be waterproof (DUH)
4. It should be fairly small, working like those robots that travel the circulatory system so that it may enter through the smaller passages.

Anonymous, could you tell me if this would work?

I think the water goes to one of these:
1. Hell itself
2. a groundwater lake
3. an entrance to Lake Superior (who knows where?)
What do you think?

OK here goes my two cents...

The cauldron's underground track can be tracked without all of these ridiculous GPS devices, cameras, balls, etc. The way a geologist that really cared about this phenomena would do is have a GPR device scan the area either with a plane or a portable unit. GPR will reveal the underground topology in a radargram.

I assure you it's probably not much of a visual experience. It's probably no different from any other cavern or cave that was carved out by water erosion. I hate to bust everyone's bubble but it appears to me that the underground path is not very long.

In my opinion the cauldron drops down almost vertically a less than a hundred feet into the Rhyolite and Basalt. Then it turns abruptly to the south on an angle toward the Brule River into an underwater exit opening back into the river. Essentially the mysterious branch flows right back into the main branch within only a few hundred feet!

So where did the logs, ping-pong balls, and dye go? Probably stuck in a underground grotto or air pocket. The dye was not bright enough and was poorly executed. It probably diluted by the heavy flow of the river.

I'm sure if the right kind of dye (rhodamine WT - RWT) was used in sufficient quantities it could be resolved quite easily coming out from the exit hole downriver within a few minutes hike downstream. Certainly traces of it will show up near Naniboujou Lodge at Lake Superior.

Somewhere between the Devil's Kettle and the next downriver waterfall (i.e. Upper Falls) before you get to Lake Superior, there must be an area that is bubbling up and looks like a wild rapid. That must be where the exit hole is. Imagine a letter "L" underground that is not very long.

BTW - GPR stands for "ground penetrating radar".

Here's another curiously... The Brule is heavy with Trout. You know they accidentally fall into the cauldron on the way down river. So there must be a large population of Trout if they can't escape the exit hole.

I have an idea, drop a very, very long rope into the hole with a very durable camera that has an extremely long battery life, eventually the rope will stop moving, and when it does have a crank machine either A) pull the rope up and investigate the footage on the camera. or B) look for the camera at suspected spots. the camera would have to have two filters, night vision and normal mode, or something that could see in pitch black, maybe attach a bright flashlight to it. If you wanted to watch its journey for a short time live, then perhaps rig it with some sort of cable that allows you to do so. When in doubt, its time for an expedition!

maybe we could just through a camera that is broadcasting live through it in there just to see where it goes to and then if we dont see or if legend is true then we could forget about it and legend would be solved

I'm going to count the number of times the term GPS is used here...then count the number of times the response "GPS doesn't work underground!" Is mentioned...
By the time I'm done, the mystery will be solved.

if you have migratory fish in those parts tag them 'Devil's Kettle' with the date and time you are releasing them, an aluminium punched tag or maybe a floating tag. Send down a few fish every year, they will if they are migratory fish work hard at finding a way out downstream and eventually they will be caught or the tags found. At least that way you'll know the river reconnects to surface water and have a general area.
very low cost, no risk. just patience.

I believe the water goes to the inner earth. The planet is cavernous, like a block of swiss cheese. It may be one of many water supplies down there. It could drop hundreds if not thousands of feet. Anyone try a waterproof GPS device?

I'm sure a lot of Minnesota officials don't want it solved. That would be bad for tourism ($$$$). I'm equally sure Nat Geo, Discovery, H2, or Science Channel would pay to divert the upper fork and then explore - IF they could get permission - which they never will because of those same officials and the tourism ($$$$) issue. Some things are best ($$$$) left to the imagination.

I am really curious about this but honestly there are some things we need to live without knowing, if someone figured out a way to do it that's great, but its always nice having some mysteries. My personal specualtion is that it leads to an underground river that eventually comes out somewhere far away from the original location

It would seem to me that the most likely solution is that the river rejoins somewhere along Lake Superior. The crux of the situation then becomes, "where?" Surely we are able to approximate the average depth and slope of lake superior? If not, there are several methods which can be employed to do so. Over and above this we are easily able to measure the flowrate of the Lake itself at different points. Do this along the length of the lake. At the point where the "devil's kettle" rejoins Lake Superior, the flowrate will see a marked increase. This will give a general idea of the region to search. As far as objects and dyes "disappearing" - Is it not possible that the waters of the devil's kettle are being "filtered" before they exit? Perhaps through accumulated debris? This could be confirmed by noting the overall flow vs the level in the Kettle. Filtration wont necessarily mean that there is no flow. Accumulation of large debris would stop the smaller debris as well as filter dyes etc while still allowing for the easy flow of water. I did notice a few people speaking about diverting the flow. I would imagine that diverting such a large volume would pose certain challenges. If it is in fact possible, Diverting a part of the flow into the kettle (rather than away) will confirm whether blockage by large debris is at all a factor. A free flow will result in the levels inside the Kettle remaining constant. Filtration will be indicated by a constantly increasing level inside the kettle.

These methods may not give us complete answers but they should, at the very least, narrow down the search area.

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